A college sports blog from The Oakland Press, dedicated to covering Michigan and Michigan State athletics as well as former Oakland County athletes at other schools.

Friday, May 28, 2010

U-M softball knocked out of NCAA tournament by Cinderella Tennessee

ANN ARBOR — Considering how infrequently Super Regional underdogs have been able to pull upsets in the NCAA softball tournament, historically speaking, most considered it just a matter of time before No. 2 seed Michigan sent 15th-seeded Tennessee packing.

The Wolverines did send the Volunteers packing, indeed — packing for an unexpected trip to the Women’s College World Series, after the Vols pulled off a stunning, two-game sweep of host U-M, clinching it with Friday’s 4-3 win.

After the game, the young Volunteers even joked about buying a new set of footwear for co-coach Ralph Weekly to pack: a pair of slippers.

“People were saying when we came up here, we were a Cinderella team, you know, and I told our kids today, if we’re a Cinderella team, let’s put on that gold slipper, or silver slipper, and let’s go to the dance,” said Weekly, whose team put Michigan on the edge of elimination with a 5-0 win in Game 1 of the best-of-three series on Thursday.

Now, the Volunteers (47-13) are the first of eight teams to punch their tickets for Oklahoma City, while the Wolverines (49-8) are just packing for home.

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About Me

Ross Maghielse is a sports writer for The Oakland Press. He has covered area high school sports for the paper since 2008 and began covering Big Ten and other college sports in 2011. Ross grew up in Rockford, Mich., about 15 minutes north of Grand Rapids and attended Oakland University, where he worked as sports editor of The Oakland Post and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in journalism. In addition to reporting for The OP's daily paper and website, Ross also works as the play-by-play broadcaster for our online web streaming of high school sports, which can be heard live on MIPrepZone.com. Follow him on Twitter @Maghielse.